Sealed package evacuating means



July 28, 1959 Q GEBHARDT 2,896,385

SEALED PACKAGE EVACUATING MEANS Filed Aug. 24, 1956 a Shoots-Sheet 1 5 n g Q) LT. E If I I L E g t y 1 4 i! IHI m M I 2 FIG. I.

ATTORNEY.

July 28, 1959 o. GEBHARDT 2,896,385

SEALED PACKAGE EVACUATING MEANS Filed Aug. 24, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 4. FIG. 5.

EN TOR OT GE BHARD T I r .33) I4 5 Q34 ATTORNEY.

July 28, 1959 o. GEBHARDT SEALED PACKAGE EVACUATING MEANS Filed Aug. 24. 1956 FIG. 9'. N

INVENTOR OTTO GEBHAR 0T W ATTORNEY.

ed States P ent SEALED PACKAGE EVACUATING MEANS 'Otto Gebhardt, Fort Lee NJ.

Application August 24, 1956, Serial No. 606,002

3 Claims. (Cl. 53-112) The present invention relates to a machine for evacuating previously sealed packages having a flexible wrap of which at least the inner surface is heat-scalable.

Food products and other commodities are marketed in flexible sheet material made of moisture-impervious plastics. Some of the products marketed in such material are adversely affected by their exposure to air for an appreciably long time, but retain their desired characteristics if maintained in a wrap from which the air has been evacuated.

Different methods have been resorted to in order to evacuate the bag-like packages after inserting into the bags the food products or other commodities. In accordance with one procedure the bags containing the products have been fed to a vacuum chamber and upon sealing the chamber the air has been evacuated from the latter and upon arriving at the desired vacuum in said chamber the bag which has likewise been subjected to the vacuum is sealed off by heat sealing means. Other methods have been proposed in which the bag is completely closed after inserting the products therein and a hole is then punched through the bag through which hole the air of the bag is evacuated whereupon the area of the bag surrounding said hole is sealedoff and the bag thus maintained in vacuo.

In accordance with one of the last mentioned methods, the bags are inserted into the machine operating like a press in order to punch a hole through the bag simultaneously' evacuating the air therefrom and sealing the area surrounding the bag.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a machine for evacuating previously sealed packages having a flexible wrap which may be heat sealed which comprises substantially a vacuum line, the end of which is designed as a heat sealing device and which has inserted therein a knife member so that the package or bag is pierced by means of said knife due to the suction effect exerted by the vacuum line.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a machine for evacuating previously sealed packages having a flexible wrap which may be heat sealed which comprises substantially a vacuum line the end of which is designed in connection with a complementary element engageable and disengageable, respectively, with said end of the vacuum line as an annular heat sealing device and in which the end of said vacuum line has mounted therein a knife member projecting slightly above the outer end of said vacuum line, so that the bag seton the vacuum line is pierced due to the suction effect of the vacuum line, whereupon the bag, while being surrounded by the atmosphere, is evacuated and instantly heat sealed around the pierced area of the bag.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for evacuating previously sealed packages having a flexible wrap which may be heat sealed in which the bag is pierced by the vacuum rneans andthe latter immediately thereaftercreate a vajcuum iii thebag "ice and then the bag is closed by a sealing ring the pierced area of the bag.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detaileddescription, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine designed in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is one end view thereof;

Fig. 3 is another end view thereof;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the machine;

Fig. 5 is a section along the lines 5-5 of Fig. 3 shown at enlarged scale;

Fig. 6 is a section along the lines 6--6 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary plan view of a bag pierced sealed in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 8 is a section along the lines 8-8 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a top plan view of another embodiment of the machine;

Fig. 10 is a section along the lines 1t)-10 ofFig. 9; and

Fig. 11 is a circuit diagram indicating the circuit for operation of the machine.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to Figs. 1 to 8, the machine comprises a frame 1 supporting preferably at its base an electric motor 2 which over pulleys 3 and 4 operates a pump S the suction side of which is connected by means ofa hose 6 or the like to a vacuum tube 7. The pressure side of the pump 5 is connected with an oil container 8 and the latter in connection with a filter muffler 9.

I The "vacuum tube 7 is properly supported by cross beams 10 and 11, respectively, and an additional cross beam 12 is also provided for mounting the pump 5. The top of the frame is equipped with a top plate 13 through which the vacuum tube 7 extends. Two solenoids 14 and 15 are secured to the cross beam 10, which solenoids operate the two sealing devices 16 and 17 adapted to seal the open end of the bag and the area surrounding a pierced hole in the bag, respectively.

Referring now to Figs. 5 to 8, the vacuum tube 7 is set off in order to receive additional support from the top plate 13 of the frame 1. The upperend of the vacuum tube 7 has a bore 18 of greater diameter than the bore 19 of the remaining portion of the vacuum tube 7. A knife 20 is inserted into the bore 18 of greater diameter and is retained in the desired position by means of two set screws 21. The vacuum tube 7 forms a shoulder 22 which is adapted to receive a rubber ring 23 the inner diameter of which is flush withthe inner diameter of the bore 18 of thevacuum tube 7. A second shoulder 24 is provided in the vacuum tube 7 at its upper end for a purpose to be described later. A complementary part 25 may reciprocate towards and from the rubber ring 23 and the inner diameter of the hollow complementary part 25 is substantially identical with the inner diameter of the rubber ring 23. The knife 20 is set into the upper end of the vacuum tube 7' in such manner that its pointed end 26 projects over the Working top face 27 of the vacuum tube 7, but is disposed below the uppermost endface ofthe vacuum tube 7, so that only the lower layer of the bag, whichis held down, due to the suction effect, to the working top face 27' of the vacuum tube 7, will be pierced by movement of the lower layer of the bag towards the knife by means of the suction effect, while the upper layer thereof remains unimpaired. In this manner the bag is subjected to a vacuum prior to the sealing ofjthe pierced opening of the bag. The knife is preferably of angular shape,though t to be understood that any knifehaving suitableshape maybeused.

surrounding and As indicated in Fig. 4 the sealing device 17 is disposed adjacent the sealing device 16, the former bringing about the longitudinal sealing of the end portion of the bag by providing a sealing line 28, while the sealing device 16 brings about a circular sealing ring 29 surrounding the previously pierced hole 30, as clearly indicated in Fig. 7 of the drawings. 7 Thetop plate is equipped with two switches, namely one switch 31 disposed in the motor circuit and a second switch 32 in the circuit including the solenoids for the respective sealing devices 16 and 17 as well as their heating elements. I

The machine is operated in such manner that at first the bag in which the products have been inserted and which is still containing air and open at one end is sealed of'f in the sealing device 17 in order to obtain a sealing end strip 28 (Fig. 7). In accordance with the embodiment shown in Fig. 4 the bag is then moved towards the sealing device 16 in such manner that a portion of the bag adjacent the sealing strip 28 is set on top of the vacuum tube 7. Due to the suction effect the portion of the bag overlying the vacuum tube 7 will be sucked in and engage the working top face 27 of the vacuum tube 7. Due to this suction movement the point 26 of the knife 20 will pierce a hole through the bottom layer of the bag and upon closing down the complementary part 25 towards the working top face 27 of the vacuum tube 7 the air will be withdrawn from the bag due to the suction effect in the vacuum tube 7. The lowering of the complementary part 25 is achieved by actuating a foot operated switch 33 and simultaneously with the evacuation the ring seal 29 is achieved; A similar foot switch 34 may be provided for operation of the solenoid 15 operating the sealing device 17.

Referring now to Figs. 9 and which disclose a second embodiment of the present invention, it will be seen that the machine is substantially identical with that in the previously described embodiment with the eidception that the position of the sealing device 17' is so related to the position of the sealing device 16' that a single positioning of the bag on the top plate 13 is sufiicient to obtain both seals on the bag. While in the arrangement shown in Fig. 4 the bag has to be moved from the first sealing position adjacent the sealing device '17 to a second sealing position towards the sealing device 16, a single positioning step is required only when this second embodiment of the present invention is used. Thus the bag upon insert ing the products therein is sealed with a longitudinal sealing by positioning the bag in the sealing device 17.

Special means have been provided to avoid the piercing of the bag prior to the longitudinal scaling in the sealing device '17. A rod 35' is mounted in the top plate 13' for 'vertical sliding therein, which rod is equipped with laterally extendingarms 36' which carry two parallel disposed guide'members 37' and a spring 38 arranged be tween the bottom face of the top plate 13' and a washer 39', which spring 38 has the tendency to maintain the guide members in the uppermost position. If the bag is now placed on the top plate 13', the guide members 37' keep the bag at such distance from the working top face of the vacuum tube 7 that the suction cannot be effective at the chosen distance. Thus the end portion of the bag is subjected to a longitudinal end scaling in the sealing device 17' and upon obtaining such end sealing the operator pushes downwardly the guide members 37' against theforce of the spring 38' until the bag comes so close to the vacuum tube 7 that the suction therein becomes effective and the particular portion of the bag is drawn onto the working top face of the vacuum tube 7 to pierce a hole by the knifeinserted therein into the bottom layer and upon subjecting the bag tovacuum to provide a sealing ring around the pierced hole in the same manner as described in the first embodiment.

Referring'now to Fig. 11 it will be seen that an electric power source 40 is connected over a switch 31' to heating elements 16a and 17a and parallel in the circuit are disposed the solenoids '14 and 15, respectively, which parallel circuits may be operated by means of the switches 33 and 34, respectively.

While electrically operated solenoids have been shown in the embodiment described in the detailedspecification for operation of the heat sealing devices, it is to be understood that the latter may be operated by any other conventional means as for instance gear means or cam means which put the sealing devices into operative position at predetermined cycles.

While I have disclosed two embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

I claim:

'1. A machine for evacuating a sealed package formed from a flexible sheet material capable of being heat sealed and for rescaling said package comprising a frame, a heat sealing device carried by said frame and having two sections facing each other and being co-operatively aligned, a vacuum producing means supported by and disposed in said frame, a vacuum tube connected with said vacuum producing means and projecting beyond the top of said frame, the upper end of said vacuum tube having a working face constituting one of said sections of said heating device, a knife means mounted in the upper end of said vacuum tube and projecting slightly above the said working face of said tube, so that upon positioning a sealed package on said working face, one layer of the sheet material is pierced by said knife means due to the suction action of said vacuum producing means to form an' aperture therein and simultaneously air is exhausted from said package, and means for moving said sections of said heat sealing device toward each other in order to heat fuse together the wall surfaces of said sheet materialaround said aperture during exhaustion of air from said package, a second heat sealing device adapted for heat sealing the longitudinal edge of said package and mounted on top of said frame and said first mentioned heat sealing device being disposed on top of said frame at about the center of said second heat sealing device and spaced apart therefrom for a distance equal with a predetermined distance of said seal around said aperture formed by said first mentioned heat sealing device from said seal formed by said second heat sealing device.

2. A machine for evacuating a sealed package formed from a flexible sheet material capable of being heat sealed and for rescaling said package comprising a frame, a heat sealing device carried by said frame and having two sections facing each other and being co-operatively aligned, a vacuum producing means supported by and disposed in said frame, a vacuum tube connected with said vacuum producing means and projecting beyond the top of said frame, the upper end of said vacuum tube having a working face constituting one of said sections of said heating device, a knife means mounted in the upper end of said vacuum tube and projecting slightly above the said working face of said tube, so that upon positioning a sealed package on said working face, one layer of the sheet material is pierced by said knife means due to the suction action of said vacuum producing means to form an aperture therein and simultaneously air is exhausted from said package, and meansfor moving said sections of said heat sealing device toward each other in order to heat fuse together the wall surfaces of said sheet material around said aperture during exhaustion of air from said package, a first switch operated circuit for said vacuum producing means and a second foot switch operated cir cuit for operation of said heat sealing device.

3. A machine for evacuating a sealed package formed from a flexible sheet material capable of being heat sealed and for rescaling said package comprising a frame, a heat sealing device carried by said frame and having two setions facing each other and being co-operatively aligned, a vacuum producing means supported by and disposed in said frame, a vacuum tube connected with said vacuum producing means and projecting beyond the top of said frame, the upper end of said vacuum tube having a. Working face constituting one of said sections of said heating device, a knife means mounted in the upper end of said vacuum tube and projecting slightly above the said Working face of said tube, so that upon positioning a sealed package on said working face, one layer of the sheet material is pierced by said knife means due to the suction action of said vacuum producing means to form an aperture therein and simultaneously air is exhausted from said package, and means for moving said sections of said heat sealing device toward each other in order to heat fuse together the wall surfaces of said sheet material References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,387,805 Roberts Aug. 16, 1921 2,649,234 Taunton Aug. 18, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 666,799 Great Britain Feb. 20, 1952 

